what do you think sherlock

Chapter 75 Vitality and Decay

From the first moment he received the task, Mansfield Smith was thinking about the way he should use to complete this seemingly incredible task.

Lord Lawton only gave him the seven words "Please make good use of the power of courage", which made him feel confused at first, but then the information sent to him by the staff in Warsaw filled the middle ring of the plan, This finally made him barely have a general idea, and now he has to personally inspect St. Petersburg to confirm the final link of the whole plan.

St. Petersburg at the end of February was abnormally cold. This kind of coldness was far incomparable to the winters in London and Cairo. Fortunately, Smith was a second-level transcendent, and even more fortunately, he was also a member of the Ten Thousand Gates. Transcendents of the doorway.

For the Transcendents of the Way of Ten Thousand Gates, they must first use the collective cognition of countless people to create a certain will and image, and then allow themselves to continuously imitate and approach this image, so as to obtain the corresponding ability , and the image of Mr. Smith approaching is called the "plainclothes knight", which is the most common image of extraordinary people in the field of secret agents and espionage.

"Plainclothes knight" is a variant of the traditional "chivalry" image, which endows practitioners with a highly adaptable physique, flexible athletic ability, keen observation ability, powerful weapon use skills and special skills such as disguise and poison .

These abilities created an opportunity for Smith to act.

Thinking of this, Smith gently pressed the brim of his hat, put one hand in the pocket of his coat, and carried the suitcase with the other hand, pacing slowly on the canal embankment.

The cold wind whizzed through the city along the Griboyedov Canal, causing passers-by on the embankment to shiver, but Smith could withstand the severe cold, and his strong adaptability made his bare palms It also won't cause frostbite.

In this way, in the cold wind, he walked while confirming the situation near the river embankment.

*
*
March 3, Buckinghamshire, Hurndon Manor.

Disraeli stirred the coffee in his hand. He was getting more and more lethargic these days, and he thought it was a bad sign.

But he is not in the mood to care about this for the time being, or in other words, it is useless to care about it. He knows that there are some people in this world who can escape the trial of death, but he does not include himself.

For him who has been suffering from a long illness, death is a foreseeable event, maybe the day after tomorrow, maybe tomorrow, or maybe it is tonight...

It's hard to say, neither he nor the doctor can give an exact date, perhaps only God can know the end of everyone's fate, but anyway, as long as he is still alive at this moment, he can still work hard. Something—like trying to have more conversations with your rebellious daughter.

"You're here again, Angelina," Disraeli's voice had become erratic, words stuck together, and the pronunciation was no longer clear.

"Well, I'm here again." Angelina's voice was also low, without any emotion, and very stiff.

She put her small bag on the table. Today she was wearing a green floral dress with a white woolen coat outside.

"Shouldn't your current situation be suitable for drinking coffee?" She glanced at the coffee in Disraeli's hand and said calmly.

"Doctors can't stop an old man who is about to die," Disraeli said with a smile, "what's more, I live by these cute guys every day."

Angelina was silent for a few seconds, picked up her teacup, and took a sip of the black tea in the cup: "I have a coffee that is less irritating to the stomach, and I will bring it to you in a few days."

"Okay, it's rare to receive your gift," Disraeli laughed again, "I hope I can receive it alive."

When Angelina heard these words, the expression on her face was as calm as ever, but the tea in the teacup in her hand suddenly had slight waves.

Afterwards, the two fell into silence. Angelina took small sips of tea, and after drinking the tea, she got up and left.

During this process, the two did not speak a single word.

In fact, Disraeli had thought that maybe if he said soft words to his daughter, the relationship between father and daughter could be eased a lot, but he still couldn't let go of his majesty as a father and as a prime minister.

He is used to political tricks and the exchange of interests, but he forgot how to communicate with his loved ones.

[All interpersonal relationships are essentially interest relationships. 】

He used to think so, but now, he slowly began to not fully believe this sentence.

"Your Excellency Disraeli, there is a visitor looking for you." The maid's voice interrupted Disraeli's thoughts.

"Oh, who will come to me at this time?" Disraeli asked curiously.

"It's the two detectives from last time."

*
March 3, St. Petersburg.

Alexander II sat in the carriage and rubbed his temples wearily.

He intends to sign a decree in the Privy Council of the Empire today, announcing the reorganization of the State Council and starting the reform process of the Russian constitutional monarchy, but when he made this decision this morning, he was opposed by all members of the royal family.

Then he summoned his trusted ministers to the Winter Palace to hold a secret meeting. At the meeting, he announced the decision again. This time, the result was relatively better. More than half of the trusted ministers chose to support them, but these ministers who supported them were all minor nobles, wealthy Representatives of classes and scholars, and all ministers of great noble origin showed embarrassing expressions.

This made him quite disappointed. He thought that after years of hard work, some nobles would choose to follow his decision based on their trust in him, but the facts forced him to wake up from his naive fantasy.

However, even though the situation was so bad, the old tsar still decided to forcibly push forward reforms. He believed that no reform was easy. He had made such "willful" decisions countless times in his life, but the final results were mostly good.

There will certainly be no surprises this time.

And there must be no accidents, because the rotten edifice of the Russian Empire is reaching its limits and will collapse in a matter of years if reforms are not carried out.

(End of this chapter)